NEW YORK The former national director
of the National Security Agency, in an appearance today before
the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., today, appeared to be unfamiliar
with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when pressed by a reporter
with Knight Ridder's Washington office -- despite his claims that he was
actually something of an expert on it.

General Michael Hayden, principal deputy director of
National Intelligence with the Office of National Intelligence, talked with
reporters about the current controversy surrounding the National Security
Agency's warrantless monitoring of communications of suspected al Qaeda
terrorists. Hayden has been in this position since last April, but was NSA
director when the NSA monitoring program began in 2001.

As the last journalist to get in a question, Jonathan
Landay, a well-regarded investigative reporter for Knight Ridder, noted
that Gen. Hayden repeatedly referred to the Fourth Amendment's search standard
of "reasonableness" without mentioning that it also demands "probable
cause." Hayden seemed to deny that the amendment included any such
thing, or was simply ignoring it.

Here is the exchange, along with the entire Fourth
Amendment at the end.

***

QUESTION: Jonathan Landay with Knight Ridder. I'd like
to stay on the same issue, and that had to do with the standard by which
you use to target your wiretaps. I'm no lawyer, but my understanding is
that the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that you must have
probable cause to be able to do a search that does not violate an American's
right against unlawful searches and seizures. Do you use --

GEN. HAYDEN: No, actually -- the Fourth Amendment actually
protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure.

QUESTION: But the --

GEN. HAYDEN: That's what it says.

QUESTION: But the measure is probable cause, I believe.

GEN. HAYDEN: The amendment says unreasonable search
and seizure.

QUESTION: But does it not say probable --

GEN. HAYDEN: No. The amendment says --

QUESTION: The court standard, the legal standard --

GEN. HAYDEN: -- unreasonable search and seizure.

QUESTION: The legal standard is probable cause, General.
You used the terms just a few minutes ago, "We reasonably believe."
And a FISA court, my understanding is, would not give you a warrant if you
went before them and say "we reasonably believe"; you have to
go to the FISA court, or the attorney general has to go to the FISA court
and say, "we have probable cause."

And so what many people believe -- and I'd like you
to respond to this -- is that what you've actually done is crafted a detour
around the FISA court by creating a new standard of "reasonably believe"
in place of probable cause because the FISA court will not give you a warrant
based on reasonable belief, you have to show probable cause. Could you respond
to that, please?

GEN. HAYDEN: Sure. I didn't craft the authorization.
I am responding to a lawful order. All right? The attorney general has averred
to the lawfulness of the order.

Just to be very clear -- and believe me, if there's
any amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security
Agency are familiar with, it's the Fourth. And it is a reasonableness standard
in the Fourth Amendment. And so what you've raised to me -- and I'm not
a lawyer, and don't want to become one -- what you've raised to me is, in
terms of quoting the Fourth Amendment, is an issue of the Constitution.
The constitutional standard is "reasonable." And we believe --
I am convinced that we are lawful because what it is we're doing is reasonable.

***

Here's the Fourth Amendment: "The right of the
people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation,
and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or
things to be seized. "

A new Gallup poll released Monday showed that 51% of
Americans said the administration was wrong to intercept conversations involving
a party inside the U.S. without a warrant. In response to another question,
58% said they support the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate
the program.

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